Expert?

I carried out/am carrying out  a number of major studies on community and
seniors quality of life, health, and well-being in Canada.

The first was an intensive study of the quality of life of two Toronto
communities funded by the Jessie Ball DuPont Fund .  These reports are available
at http://www.utoronto.ca/qol/community.htm.  Guess what, not one of 400+ plus
community members, service providers, or elected representatives mentioned
modifying community members'  lifestyles as being important contributers to
their quality of life.  They talked about jobs, day care, stigmitizing of poor
communities, crime, safety, racism and discrimination, lack of recreation
centres, food, income, and access to amenties.  Both these studies have been
either published or accepted by peer-reviewed journals.

The second was a national study of seniors' quality of life in seven Canadian
communities funded by health Canada.  These reports are available at
http://www.utoronto.ca/seniors. Seniors talked about having their voices heard
by policy makers, having quality acute and long term care, housing, adequate
income, transportation, educational opportunities, respect and information.  You
know, eating fruits and vegetables and exercising or cutting out their tobacco
use did not top their agendas.  In fact these issues were never mentioned. Two
articles have been published or are in press.

The third is an SSHRC funded study of social exclusion among low income people
in 8 Edmonton and Toronto communities being carried out with the University of
Alberta.  Low income people feel ostracized, neglected and abused by
governments.  Middle class people are seen as having no comprehension of their
situation or the impacts of material and psychological deprivation on their and
their children's health.  And you know what, they didn't urge us to develop more
programs to help them exercise, eat fruits and vegetables, or cut out their
tobacco use!

That public health units in Canada are focusssing their activities to lifestyle
approaches in the light of the current policy environment and the findings of
studies like mine, is not simply benign; they are malignant. I have argued in
the paper "Canadian Policy Statements on Income and Health:  Sound and Fury,
Signifying Nothing (Canadian Review of Social Policy, in press):

"Few readers will be surprised that current governmental and public health
practice activities ignore issues of increasing incidence of both low income and
unequal income distribution.  There should be surprise however, over the stark
contrast between practice and the printed policy statements concerning health
promotion and population health that emanate from our governments and public
health officials.  Perhaps it is time that these officials were reminded of
these statements and called to task for ignoring their own prescriptions for
improving the health of Canadians."

dr

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